The paper attempts to study the nature and structure of the urban labor market in Coimbatore. It analyzes the determinants of earnings of the unorganized labor market in the engineering industry, studies the occupational mobility and its determinants, and ascertains the factors associated with social security of the workers. Two industries —foundry and pump—are chosen for the study, based on the number of units and employment of very large number of people. To make the study reliable, the sample size has been restricted to 10% in case of engineering units and 30% in the case of workers on a random basis. The sample constitutes 1,022 workers, of which 537 are from the foundry industry and the remaining 485 are from the pump industry.

Labor in Coimbatore engineering industry consists predominantly of migrant workers. Nearly half of the workforce represents the youth. Further, one-fifth of the total workforce is women. Finding a job in engineering industry of Coimbatore is a cakewalk, and wage is not lucrative. Irrespective of the job, the wage received by the workforce is very nominal. Lack of increase in employment opportunities implies that the workers are in a way trapped. Workers have to work for long hours and gender-based wage discrimination is widely prevalent. An interesting feature that is observed is high casualization of labor. The workers have nobody to turn to, the government is indifferent, the casual mechanism is tardy and there is a major dilemma about the role of unions. The workers have no control over a story that is scripted elsewhere. Most are migrants, desperately needing livelihoods and taking whatever is given to them.

Employment opportunities have been increasing. Generally, engineering industry attracts more migrant workers and makes them the mainstay. But the migrant workers have very less opportunities for shifting to alternative jobs, which do not provide room for vertical mobility along their professional ladder. Similarly, the mobility of the workers of engineering industry is confined among certain jobs. Some workers articulated that they have a very remote chance of promotion and some others opined that there would be a possibility to get promoted only when the workers acquire better education and have very good relationship with the superiors concerned. In spite of increased choices of jobs and emergence of big-sized units every now and then, social security system in many units belonging to the engineering industry is found to be inadequate. Even common benefits like ESI and PF are not extended to all the workers. Due to unhealthy and unhygienic nature of production process, around two-fifth of workers are affected by occupational health hazards. No specific health protection is made available to these workers either by the government or by the employers. So the workers of the foundry industry face a high degree of insecurity of health.

Applied Economics Journal, Engineering Industry, Econometric Analysis, Urban Labor Markets, Pump Industry, Coimbatore Engineering Industry, Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC, International Labor Organization, National Commission for Entrepreneurs, Indian Institute of Foundry Men, IIFM, Labor Law.